Today's war in the Middle East is not only being fought on the battlefield. It is also being contested strongly in the media as a war of stories, narratives and a large amount of propaganda: propaganda against the truth, which, unfortunately, seems to be losing.
On Saturday morning, October 7, thousands of terrorists from the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip. They massacred entire populations and families, kidnapped hundreds of people, raped women, and incinerated and beheaded babies—for those who doubt that a terrorist group that has been plaguing the region for decades is capable of committing such atrocities, there are thousands of photographic and audiovisual records that prove it, and the foreign press can visit the area to see the evidence (as hundreds of media outlets have already done).
Due to the massacre, which is the largest committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the government of Israel decided to respond with all the necessary force and might, not only to put an end to the terrorist group but to free the hostages.
The war in Israel and Gaza has been going on for more than a month. The casualties have not stopped. The drama continues intact, and it is unlikely to stop anytime soon. There is a risk, with continued threats from Iran, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, that the conflict will, in fact, escalate to a regional level never seen before.
There would be no dilemma, as it seems obvious. A terrorist group, which controls and is the government in the Gaza Strip, where it subjugates the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who reside there, is waging a bloody war against a free and prosperous nation. Israel, which, as everyone should know, is the only democracy in the Middle East. A vibrant, free nation where Jews, Muslims, Christians, Arabs, atheists and people from all walks of life coexist.
However, although it seems obvious and that there is no room for argument, the Western world, which has Israel as a retaining wall of barbarism, and shares principles and values with the Jewish people, has chosen - not entirely, because that would be unfair to say—to side with terrorism and condemn Israel for exercising its legitimate right to defend itself. Why, in large part, is this so? Well, because of the media.
The propaganda that comes out of Gaza is a story fabricated by the terrorist group Hamas, by Iran, and by all the fundamentalist groups that hate Jews, whose purpose is to destroy Israel and who will then go on to take on the rest of the Western world. This propaganda is based on several fallacies: that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza for years, that Israel does not care about Palestinian civilians, that it kills them without discretion, and that Israel is an apartheid state.
Today, the BBC or The Guardian headline reads: "There is an obligation to prevent genocide from being committed in Gaza." The BBC also says that Palestinians are "the victims of the most atrocious genocide." The Los Angeles Times joins the chorus and writes, "Genocide in Gaza." Mainstream media coverage has been so shameful that even President Biden, consented by the New York Times, was outraged when the New York newspaper jumped to conclusions and blamed Israel for a missile hitting Gaza's main hospital when it was later proven that the projectile was Palestinian.
There is an echo in the media about the figures coming out of Gaza: so many thousands of children murdered or so many civilians arbitrarily attacked. It is omitted, of course, that when the Gaza hospital or the supposed Ministry of Health or whoever speaks, they do so not as a serious institution but as part of the Hamas propaganda apparatus. Let it be understood: Hamas controls absolutely every space in the Gaza Strip. There are no autonomous or independent entities. The terrorist group controls everything.
The media also omits that Israel is carrying out a military campaign against an enemy that uses civilians as a critical resource in its war.
"Israel bombs ambulance near Gaza hospital, 15 dead reported," reads a Reuters headline. It omits, of course, that Israel attacked because Hamas militants used ambulances to transport themselves in war zones, precisely for the purpose of Reuters doing the same. And this, by the way, is not Israeli propaganda: in an intercepted call, the terrorists themselves are heard talking about the tactic of using ambulances for transportation.
Hamas built its operations center and its entire network of tunnels under Gaza City and the main hospital. Hamas launches missiles towards Israel from inhabited buildings and schools. They prohibit civilians from leaving their homes or evacuating because they need them as human shields so that the West can buy their propaganda.
The spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, Roni Kaplan, told us in an interview: Hamas takes advantage of our sensitivity in the West, of our weakness in the face of human drama, to spread its propaganda.
And they are achieving it. Therefore, I also asked Kaplan, How is Israel failing? Given what seems obvious, how is it possible that we are not winning the communication war?
"We still have a lot to learn," he admitted.
But the truth is there. Today, there is a humanitarian corridor south of Gaza in which Israel guarantees the safety of Palestinian civilians who are evacuating. In the south of Gaza, there are trucks full of humanitarian aid protected by Israel. Although Israel can destroy the land and destroy Hamas in a couple of hours, it has undertaken a slow, rigorous and delicate campaign, which has cost a lot, precisely to reduce the collateral damage - which, in any war, ends up being inevitable.
How is it possible that there is a years-long genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, yet the Palestinian population has multiplied since the existence of the state of Israel?
Neither in Gaza nor in the cities controlled by the Palestinians in the West Bank is a Jew allowed to enter, but throughout Israel, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims can work and live. In Israel's Congress, the Knesset, there are Muslim Arabs and Arabs rule entire cities in Israel. The media mentions none of that.
Roni Kaplan also told us that 21% of Israel's population is Arab, and of that 21%, 92% are Muslim.
When in London, New York, Madrid and Berlin thousands take to the streets, supported by the local left, to chant that Palestine must be free, from the river to the sea, the call is for what happened on October 7 to be repeated, but on a larger scale, throughout Israel. It doesn't happen in Tehran or Kabul. It happens in the heart of our countries. In the heart of the West: the media and academia pander to it. They don't say anything. Indeed, they laid out the welcome mat for them.
But the truth is there, despite all the propaganda. And suppose the media has decided to swallow the propaganda promoted by both Hamas and Iran, who hate the West, who hate our freedoms, who would kill anyone who embraces that woke culture that paradoxically prostrates itself before Islamic fundamentalism. In that case, it is not Israel's fault.
The media has not been fooled. The media has decided to side, for now, with the terrorists in this war in Israel and Gaza. What are they playing at?
